On February 11th, Courage My Love will be performing in their first ever headlining show at Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto with special guests After The Anthems, RPTZR, Fire and Sound, & Kill The Messenger. It’s going to be one huge party with more than a few familiar faces in the crowd....and we want you to be there!

LiveMusicTO is giving 2 lucky fans a chance to win:

• 2 passes to Courage My Love’s Feb 11th show
  
• Autographed swag from the band
  
• Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day... fans can win A DATE WITH COURAGE MY LOVE before the show (Sneaky Dee’s Nachos included!) 
  
• 2 passes to see Yelawolf on March 8th courtesy of Union Events

HOW TO ENTER & WIN

Step 1) Post the “Feb 11th Event Poster” (which you can download here) as your Facebook profile display photo

Step 2) Include the following in the caption:
* A link to the Facebook Event Page:  http://www.facebook.com/events/144492585666548/ 
* A link to Advance Tickets Page:  http://www.ticketscene.ca/events/5781 
* And most importantly, why you deserve to have a DATE WITH COURAGE MY LOVE

Step 3) Post your Facebook profile link (or direct link to your display photo) on the LiveMusicTO Facebook Page to qualify: http://www.facebook.com/LiveMusicTO 

Fans who have the most amount of “Shares” of their Courage My Love Feb 11th Event Poster Profile Pic and along with some uber amazing comments on their Facebook photo will win this contest! Good luck to everyone and see you guys on February 11th! The Winner will be contacted on Friday, February 10th.

Ten questions with Satelites bassist, Rayhan.

How did you all come to know each other, and is there any meaning behind your name?
Most of the members of the band and the rest of the Satelites crew pretty much grew up together actually since like high school and even earlier. And I actually got acquainted to them from a craigslist ad when they needed a new bassist.  The simplest way I can explain the meaning, is to just say, Satelites is so amazing, it’s out of this world

 
How long have you been playing together?
The band’s been around for a little bit, like about 4 years now. Me and Chester, our drummer just joined about a year ago though.

What have been some of your biggest accomplishments so far?
Well, before my time, Sateites was on the Much Music show Disband, so being in a band that was on national television is definitely an achievement unlocked.  But for me personally, just the chance to play with bands that I am genuinely a fan of. Just last summer, we got to play with After The Anthems, who I’m a huge fan of. And now we’re gonna play with Live The Story, another band that I’m kind of obsessed with.

What is your favourite song to perform live, and why?
Slow-motion love.  It was a favourite of mine before I even joined the band, and I was so glad when the guys decided to bring it back. The song has a personal significance to me, but it’s also just so fun to play. It’s got a nice beat, beautiful melody, and Theo and I do this cute little back and forth thing in the 2nd verse that always makes me smile when we pull it off.

How would you describe your fans? Any favourite fan moments to date?
I would describe our fans as very patient and loyal, just because we’ve been a band for a while now, and due to a few unfortunate circumstances, including lineup changes, a lot of our plans have fallen through or been pushed back. But we’re still trying to stay strong and positive and do what we love doing, and the fans are still coming to our shows and supporting us however way they can, and we really appreciate it . Favourite fan moment, probably everytime I log in on our Youtube channel and see all the heartwarming comments on our music.

What are you most looking forward to in 2012?
Just getting back to the studio and recording something fresh, and going on tour to promote it. Not to mention just general thigns like new movies, albums coming out, iphone 5 and the world ending.

What is your favourite venue to play or see a band play in Toronto?
I loved playing at the Sound Academy and Opera House. But I love seeing bands at the Phoenix. I never got to play there yet.

Where is your favourite spot in the city to hangout as a band?
In the summer we chill a lot at the beaches or we’d be playing basketball at a court near our jamspot in Scarborough. Nowadays we’re usually indoors at somebody’s house.

If there is one item you can't live without while on the road, what would it be and why?
I wouldn’t be able to live without my Iphone. I gotta have my music accessible to me at all times whether I listen to it or not. It’s just comforting to have it there, because sometimes when I’m in a really bad mood or having a bad trip, music is the one thing that always calms me down. Also, I get a lot of reading done too so I have a lot of good e-books on my phone as well as a notepad to write.

For people seeing you play live for the first what can they expect? What do you hope fans will remember?
They can expect to have sore necks the next day just from bobbing their heads. When we’re on stage, we always try to bring the energy to a relatively high level., so they can definitely expect to have some good music to dance to. We’re gonna be playing some old favourites as well that we probably won’t play for a while once we get new stuff done so keep that in mind. And we really hope they remember our name, our twitter and our facebook links so that we can see them all again.

Catch Satelites playing LIVE on January 27th at LiveMusicTO's showcase HERE.

Hip-hop is reigning supreme right now because they are the only one’s who have real shit. In the midst of this rock draught we are having here, I can honestly say that hip-hop is the only thing that speaks to me at the moment. That, and the latest Jane’s Addiction single “Irresistible Force,” which if you’re a dreamer of any kind, you already know why.

I’ve had a million things to say about Drake since he first broke but it was too soon to say so without sounding like a love letter. It’s not really a question of does he have the tightest raps or the best flow? And it’s not a matter of praising him for being any good at it. It’s about recognizing his ability to pull the whole thing off, and appreciating the kind of calculation it takes to do it this big on the back of a mix tape.

The art of being a major player in popular culture and maybe even in history, depending on how switched on you are, is your ability to visualize a desire and then will it into reality.

Drake is a brilliant example of that.

Do you think he’s dining with hip-hop royalty right now by accident? No. This is a guy who knew exactly what he wanted and that he was capable of hacking it with the best of them, and he went out and got it. Simple-as-that. The amazing part is that he was barely 25 and he managed 2 Grammy nominations before he had even released a full-length album. Excuse me, but that’s untouchable.

This is a guy who launched an entire career off commentating his own rise to fame as it happened in real time. Not only has that never been done, it’s one of those things that was so fucking real the first time it happened, anyone who tries to do it the same way again will be doing just that, trying.

Did he have an angle? Sure. Was it exaggerated? Absolutely. But, do you know what kind of confidence it takes to tell the whole world that you’re something you’re not even sure, as of yet, that you really are? When he says something like: “the realest on the rise, fuck them other guys,” you believe him because he believes what he’s projecting. This guy proves that perception is reality baby, and that is the real art of it. The credit he deserves isn’t for being the best rapper to ever hit the face of the earth, it’s for having a dream and fulfilling it five fold while we all stood here and watched.

Drake busted out of the gates claiming that he was going to be The (one and only) Shit, and he did it, he lived up to and surpassed his own hype. We basically watched this kid come to life before our eyes and when you start to realize that his angle was essentially to tell the story of his real life coupled with the story of his rise to fame, you start to understand the difference between confidence and arrogance.

One of the most appealing things about Drake as an artist is his sense of realism, and as human beings we are naturally attracted to positive, confident, and charismatic individuals. I think in a time when music is lacking realism the most people are drawn to him whether they even understand why or not.

Listen, whoever you are, if you have a dream, you know, that something that pumps electric through your veins, key to it all is believing that you are IT, whether IT is reality yet or not. Say what you will but this guy’s a f*cking inspiration. He’s an incredible example of what this generation is capable of, and he is a marker of a new age in hip-hop and of popular music in general.

Drake coming along when he did was an exciting thing because it showed the industry and the listening public that there is still room for people to shake things up and be the first at something, even in a world at the pinnacle of overexposure. What band’s and artists coming up right now need to realize is that long gone are the days when they could expect to be discovered by an A & R guy and swept up by a major label for a 7 album recording deal. That’s not the world we live in anymore. You’ve got to burn for it.

These days, artists have to learn to become the CEO’s of their own fully functioning, self-sustaining businesses, if they have intentions of sticking around long enough to make a dent, let alone for life. Even if you don’t like his voice or you can’t get into him as a rapper or whatever your issue is, Drake was a serious game changer. As one of the first major musical success stories of this generation, not only has he already begun to shape the sound of hip-hop to come by recognizing the potential advantages of being a rapper who could also sing melodically, his approach is going to become an archetype of success for future others who are meant to move the cultural needle as he has.

It’s taken us a long while to figure out how to re-approach music in a technological world, but after a whack load of auto-tune and some trial and error, someone like Drake makes you realize that nothing gets you as hard as REAL, raw, emotion. 

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By: Juliette Jagger of www.rockrollandwrite.com  

By now there likely isn’t a person anywhere in the world that hasn’t heard of Burlington, Ontario band Walk Off The Earth and their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know.” I first saw this video floating around Facebook two weeks back when it still had less than 1000’s Youtube views, but since being mentioned on Good Morning America and The Ellen Show amongst others, the latest news is that this band will likely be signing a major label contract.

I say hey, good for them, they took a sort of unconventional approach, and did a really great job of covering an already good song. I’m more than happy to pay credit where credit is due, but the news definitely has some wondering why the sudden interest in signing a cover band?

It’s great news for independent artists out there, encouraging at the very least. I mean this band managed to amass worldwide attention in an incredibly short amount of time, and now has major labels knocking down their doors, what indie band wouldn’t want that? But that being said, any idiot can see what the label’s real motives are.

It’s pretty well know that anyone who reaches a million Youtube views is making a nice little pay check, and with this video having already exceeded 23 million, this is just a straight up cash grab; a true sign of the times and reflection of the state of the industry.

I mean come on, what does a major label want with a cover band anyways? Don’t get me wrong, these guys are absolutely talented and they did a hell of good job with this song, but don’t tell me that the label wants them because they did such a good job that someone sitting up in an office somewhere saw the light through their 5 man 1 guitar stunt and feels compelled to actually shape their talents into something great.

At this point it’s safe to assume that this band’s next video, regardless of what it is, will be an absolute shoe in and the label knows that. So, while people are still buzzing about this Gotye cover, all the interested parties throw their offers on the table in hopes that the band will bight so that they can jump on the hype that’s already been created, and in turn they can all finish riding out this wave “together.” Really makes you wonder who has a better handle of this thing right now, the indie band that’s successfully cracked the surface or the major label that sees a perfectly timed opportunity to make a very quick buck?

One thing’s for sure; whatever happens next will be the deciding factor. This is actually a pretty important moment in blurring those relationship lines between indie artists of today and what’s left of the major labels. Either this band knew exactly what they wanted out of that video right from the get go, and this is just a domino in their larger plan – which is completely plausible, there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that keep even an indie band lookin’ “indie” – or this was a really happy accident, and this band will go on and sign with a label that’ll build them up for the next 6 months and then a year and half from now, rape them for what they’re worth and drop their asses back in Burlington.

Either way, remember kiddies, good shit will always float, that’s physics, but when you start to eat shit to hold onto your 15 minutes of fame, well then you just work for a major label.

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By: Juliette Jagger of www.rockrollandwrite.com 

How did you all come to know each other, and is there any meaning behind your name?
Mike and Jordan met while playing in a band together that broke up months before the formation of 'My Worlds End'. The band broke up because their vocalist was unwilling to compromise. They decided to carry on and went in search of a new bassist and vocalist. Mike discovered, our lovely songstress, Tammy, while attending a music class at their high school. Jordan knew Bruno from a music school they both attended and asked him to join the current regime. Thus, 'My Worlds End' came into being.Our tall, dark and handsome bassist came up with the name. It symbolizes the multiple faces people wear when interacting with each other; like having multiple realms of self depending on who a person is interacting with, and how, after a while, all those masks and facades can come crashing down, and a persons identity can be lost in the process; it's their worlds end.

How long has the band been playing together?
We've been playing together for just under 2 years. 

What have been some of your biggest accomplishments so far?
Some of our biggest accomplishments as a band include recently releasing our Self-Titled EP and playing a full show outside of a library. 

What is your favourite song to perform live, and why?
Our favourite song to play would have to be 'Our Way'. The reason for this is because most of our fans favour the song and it is one of the songs we have the most confidence while playing. 

How would you describe your fans? Any favourite fan moments to date?
Our fans are sexy, vibrant, and oftentimes have trouble keeping their clothing on at our concerts. Some of the best/ funniest things that they have done live include throwing beach balls in the audience, moshing, and supporting us in general.

What are you most looking forward to in 2012?
In 2012 we are looking forward to going back to the studio, pumping the year with concerts, and the 'Dark Knight Rises' movie. We plan on really excelling the band in the current year so everyone should stay tuned to what we have coming up. 

What is your favourite venue to play or see a band play in Toronto?
To date, our favourite venue to play at has been the Sound Academy.

Where is your favourite spot in the city to hangout as a band?
Our favourite hangout spot is definitely at "Timmies bro".

If there is one item you can't live without while on the road, what would it be and why?
Music.

For people seeing you play live for the first what can they expect? What do you hope fans will remember?
People can expect to have their minds blown due to the excessive amount of youthful passion we fuse into our music. They can also expect to have an amazing time because our shows are always packed full of awesome. We hope that they will remember our songs, our name, and the overall fun we have while we're playing together as a band. 

See My Worlds End perform LIVE on January 27th, 2012 at Hard Luck Bar. Tickets and details HERE.

LiveMusicTO chats with Toronto post hardcore/alternative rock band Body Doubles. Download their EP, Wish Me Luck, I Aim To Please, for free at: bodydoubles.bandcamp.com 

How did you all come to know each other, and is there any meaning behind your name?
We all played in local hardcore/screamo bands around Toronto for years. All of us wanted to be a part of something new and fresh, with a focus on melody rather than aggression. Our name doesn't have a strong foundation or meaning - after tossing ideas around for a while, this one just kind of stuck! It sounds cool.

How long has the band been playing together?
We formed just over a year ago, around the summer of 2010.

What have been some of your biggest accomplishments so far?
So far, we've played some awesome shows with some of our favourite bands, like Story Of The Year, Kingdoms and Lower Than Atlantis. Also, recording with Jordan Valeriote (Silverstein, Dead & Divine) was a big deal to us - some of our favourite Canadian albums have been produced by him. We're returning to his studio this March to record a new EP and we cannot be more excited!

What is your favourite song to perform live, and why?
We do a cover of The Street's "Blinded By The Lights" - we have a lot of fun jumping around to this one, since it's probably the least complicated song for all of us to play. 

How would you describe your fans? Any favourite fan moments to date?
Although we're still building our fan base, we've noticed a lot of new faces at shows lately. We opened the Lifestory:Monologue/Kingdoms show in Toronto and a whole bunch of kids were singing our lyrics and having a blast. This was amazing to see - it let us know that people really feel what we're doing and got us even more stoked for what's to come.

What are you most looking forward to in 2012?
Canadian Music Week, recording and releasing our new EP and transitioning from a local to touring band.

What is your favourite venue to play or see a band play in Toronto?
Sneaky Dee's is the best. The sound is awesome, it's intimate, always has a great crowd, cheap beer and awesome food!

Where is your favourite spot in the city to hangout as a band?
Sneaks. For all of the reasons listed above! We even did our last photoshoot in an alley nearby. 

If there is one item you can't live without while on the road, what would it be and why?
Smartphones. We use them all the time to keep in touch with people, fight boredom and play music. 

For people seeing you play live for the first what can they expect? What do you hope fans will remember?
They can expect to see four sweaty dudes giving it their all and having the most fun in the world. This is all we care about and all we want to do with our lives, so hopefully fans will remember our passion and energy.

See Body Doubles perform LIVE on January 27th, 2012 at Hard Luck Bar. Tickets and details HERE.

On January 27th 2012, arguably Toronto’s most buzz-worthy pop punk band, Live The Story, will be headlining at the Hard Luck Bar with other Toronto scene flag-bearers, Like Pacific, Body Doubles, Satelites, and My Worlds End! It’s going to be one huge party to celebrate some of the city’s hardest working artists and we want you to be there!

LiveMusicTO along with Union Events will be choosing 2 lucky winners to win:

• 2 pairs of tickets to see The Cab & The Summer Set w/ He Is We at The Virgin Mobile Mod Club on Feb 4th
  
• 2 pairs of tickets to this event (Live The Story **Homecoming Show** w/ Like Pacific, Body Doubles, Satelites, & My Worlds End on Jan 27th)
  
• Live The Story swag!!!

And this is how you can win...

Step 1) Post the “January 27th Event Poster” (which you can download Here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=339483482729217&set=pu.112281478782753&&theater) as your Facebook profile display photo

Step 2) Include the following in the caption:
- A link to the Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/316605671703186/
- A link to Advance Tickets Page:  http://www.ticketscene.ca/events/5683 
- And put in the caption: “I want to win tickets to see THE CAB and LIVE THE STORY!”

Step 3) Post your Facebook profile link (or direct link to your display photo) on the LiveMusicTO Facebook Page to qualify: http://www.facebook.com/LiveMusicTO 

Fans who have the most amount of “likes” and uber amazing comments on their Facebook photo will win this contest! Good luck to everyone and see you guys at the show! Winners will be contacted via Facebook message Jan 25th at 11PM.